Bakery Review: Holy Nata, San Francisco, CA

Bakery Review: Holy Nata in San Francisco, CA - visited June 21, 2024

I spent a few days in the SF Bay Area last month to see friends and, as always, I like to go back to both favorite haunts and new places to try. In this case, I saw an ad for Holy Nata pop up on my Instagram feed. I had never heard of Holy Nata but, thanks to a business trip to Portugal a couple of years ago, I was fabulously well-acquainted with Portuguese custard tarts. They are fantastic. And remember I say that as someone who's not big into custard-y desserts. I'm spoiled that I first tried them in Portugal, including at Pasteis de Belem in Lisbon, where legend says they make pasteis de nata from the original recipe.

Since I don't live in Portugal and where I currently live does not offer pastel de nata, I thought I'd have to do without until I made it back to Portugal. Ah, but wait. Enter that IG ad for Holy Nata. It's located in downtown San Francisco and since SF was one of my stops to see former coworkers/current friends, it was an easy no-brainer to incorporate a trip to Holy Nata into my plans.

The yelp reviews warn that Holy Nata sells out quickly and it's best to reserve your pasteis de nata online ahead of time. Since I only had a small window when I was going to be in San Francisco, I dutifully pre-ordered online for the Friday I was going to be there.

The shop itself is a little hole in the wall on Trinity Place, which is more of an alley rather than a street. The couple of pictures I managed to take inside was just a shot from just within the door, if that gives you an idea of how small it was. I showed up at the appointed time but they didn't have my preorder listed. I showed my confirmation text but it turns out I had made the reservation for the following Friday, not the Friday I was there. D'oh! Fortunately, the counter person very kindly assured me she had enough pasteis de nata to cover my order right there. Whew.

You get the option to have them sprinkle cinnamon over the tops. They packaged my order of 8 into 2 boxes of 4. Each box of 4 is $10 so an individual pastel de nata is $2.50.You can get a box of 4, 6 or 24 or any multiple thereof. No matter how few or how many you get, they're freaking worth it. I bought 4 to give away and 4 for my (oinker) self. When I got back to my (former) office and shared with one of my coworkers, I tried one from my own stash while it was still warm. OMG. Flaky pastry and creamy custard - what could go wrong other than my expanding waistline? When warm, the pastry shell was flaky and buttery while the custard filling was a bit oozy and definitely creamy.  

The "downside" and with 20/20 hindsight, they're still good the same day even when they've cooled off but the next day (even *I* could not eat 4 pasteis de nata in one day), the pastry shell is a bit tough and chewy to eat. It's lost the flake. The custard was still creamy and the overall taste was still good but I recommend only getting as many as you can reasonably eat the same day you buy them. They're not quite the same as the pastel de nata I consumed in Portugal but they're still damn good. If you're ever in downtown San Francisco, stop by and taste for yourself. Just note that they're only open Tuesday - Friday with varying hours and it's probably better to go earlier in the day rather than later to make sure they have pasteis on hand, if you don't pre-order and get the correct date *cough*.